Indiana Bell Telephone Co. v. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission

855 N.E.2d 357, 2006 Ind. App. LEXIS 2135, 2006 WL 2975507
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 19, 2006
DocketNo. 93A02-0410-EX-896
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 855 N.E.2d 357 (Indiana Bell Telephone Co. v. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana Bell Telephone Co. v. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, 855 N.E.2d 357, 2006 Ind. App. LEXIS 2135, 2006 WL 2975507 (Ind. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinions

OPINION

BAKER, Judge.

Appellants-respondents Indiana Bell Telephone Company (SBC), Verizon North, Inc., and Contel of the South, Inc., d/b/a Verizon North Systems (Verizon) appeal the findings of the full board (Board) of the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission (IURC) in favor of appellee-peti-tioner the Indiana Payphone Association (IPA). Specifically, the Appellants argue that the Board erred in applying the New Services Test (the Test) to Verizon, in finding that Verizon did not take the sub-seriber line charge, also known as the end user common line charges (collectively, "Charges", into account in determining its revenue requirement, in recognizing findings from a separate proceeding, in ordering the Appellants to refund the Charges, [360]*360in not limiting the refund of the Charges to two years, and in reducing the prospective payphone rates. In its appellee's brief, the IPA asserts that the IURC erred in failing to order SBC and Verizon to pay interest on the refund of the Charges.

FACTS

The IPA is an organization of businesses that provide pay telephone service to the public by purchasing telephone lines and other services from local exchange companies like SBC and Verizon (collectively, "Locals"). In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act (the Act), which created a new regulatory scheme designed to "promote competition among payphone service providers and promote the widespread deployment of payphone services to the benefit of the general public" by replacing a state-regulated monopoly system with a federally-facilitated, competitive market. 47 U.S.C. §§ 251, 276.

In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a series of orders clarifying and implementing the Act. When presented with a matter from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, the FCC took the opportunity to clarify how state commissions were to implement the Test (the Second Wisconsin Order). The Second Wisconsin Order, which was issued on January 31, 2002, noted the "longstanding precedent that [the FCC used] forward looking cost methodologies where [it] applied the [Test]." Appellee's Add., tab 2, para. 8. The Second Wisconsin Order also confirmed that rates for payphone service must comply with the Test, which allows the Locals to charge IPA only for the Locals' forward-looking costs. The Test is a cost-based test that sets the direct cost of providing the new service as a price floor and then adds a reasonable amount of overhead to derive the overall price of the new service. To this end, forward-looking, direct cost methodologies, such as total service long-run incremental cost (TSLRIC) or total element long-run incremental cost (TELRIC) should be used to calculate direct costs. The Second Wisconsin Order also noted the FCC's requirement that the Charges must be deducted from payphone rates to avoid double recovery by the Locals. The FCC also noted that the Test was required statutorily only for Bell Operating Companies (BOCs), but encouraged states to apply the Test more broadly, "thereby extending the pro-competitive regime intended by Congress to apply to the BOCs to other [Locals] that occupy a similarly dominant position in the provision of payphone lines." Appellee's Add., tab 2, para. 42.

On April 15, 1997, the IPA filed the first proceeding with the IURC, in which the IURC approved rates and charges for the Locals' payphone services in compliance with the Test. In the first proceeding, the IPA argued that the Charges were not lawful. The IURC did not rule on this issue, instead noting that the Charges "are the subject of a separate docket before this Commission docketed as Cause No. 41100 [the second proceeding]...." SBC's App. p. 112. The second proceeding, in which the IPA alleged that the Locals unlawfully collected the Charges and therefore owed a refund to the IPA, had been filed during the pendency of the first proceeding. The Locals filed tariffs and charged payphone rates in accordance with the final orders in the first proceeding.

After the issuance of the Second Wisconsin Order, the IPA filed a new complaint with the IURC on October 10, 2002 (the third proceeding). The IPA asked the IURC to set new, reduced future payphone rates and to direct the Locals to refund with interest to IPA members the difference between the requested new [361]*361rates and the existing, tariffed rates approved by the IURC in the first proceeding, retroactive to April 1997, when the first proceeding was filed. The IURC found, "In light of the FCC's recent reevaluation of the [Test] in [the Second Wisconsin Order], the Presiding Officers find that this is an appropriate time to review [the Locals'] rates." Appellee's App. p. 134.

On August 12 and 18, 2008, the IURC conducted an evidentiary hearing in the third proceeding. On September 29, 2004, the IURC issued its final order, finding:

1. SBC's rates for payphone access lines and features are hereby revised in accordance with the findings herein. SBC shall file tariffs in compliance with the findings within thirty (80) days of the date of the Order.
2. Verizon's rates for payphone access lines and features are hereby revised in accordance with the findings herein. Verizon shall submit proposed tariffs and supporting cost documentation in compliance with the findings within thirty (80) days of the date of the Order.
3. SBC's and Verizon's rates approved in [the first proceeding] should be adjusted for intrastate and or interstate subscriber line charges. Therefore, SBC and Verizon shall refund an amount equal to subsecriber line charges assessed since April 15, 1997 to present. The refunds shall be issued within ninety (90) days of the date of this Order and shall be issued in the form of a Tump-sum payment to each affected customer, and not in the form of a bill credit.
4. The IPA failed to prove that basic rates approved by the [IURC] in [the first proceeding] were unlawful and, with the exception of subscriber line charges, the IPA shall not be entitled to a refund of the difference between the rates approved in this Order and the rates approved in [the first proceeding].
5. This Order shall be effective on and after the date of its approval.

SBC's App. p. 40-41. The order made no mention of interest with the refund of the Charges. The IURC issued its final order on the second proceeding on the same day. On October 19, 2004, the Locals petitioned for reconsideration of the final order in the third proceeding, and on January 5, 2005, the petitions for reconsideration were deemed denied. The Locals now appeal.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

The Locals contend that the IURC erred in applying the Test to Verizon because it is not a BOC, in finding that Verizon did not take the Charges into account in determining its revenue requirement, in recognizing findings in the second proceeding regarding the issue of whether the Charges were lawful, in ordering the Locals to refund the Charges, in not limiting the refund of the Charges to two years in accordance with a prior FCC decision, and in reducing the prospective payphone rates. On cross-appeal, the IPA argues that the IURC erred in failing to order the Locals to pay interest on the refund of the Charges because the IURC is authorized to award interest.

I. Standard of Review

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Related

Home Telephone Co. of Pittsboro, Inc. v. Verizon North, Inc.
904 N.E.2d 223 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
855 N.E.2d 357, 2006 Ind. App. LEXIS 2135, 2006 WL 2975507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-bell-telephone-co-v-indiana-utility-regulatory-commission-indctapp-2006.